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Friday, September 4, 2009

Headlines! No assholes, Monsters of Folk and more

Today, I got stood up by the guitarist from Flogging Molly. But, it's OK. I have two weeks to interview the guy. We'll get to this eventually.

Anyway, I finally got around to catching "(500) Days of Summer" last night. (Two viewings of "Inglourious Basterds" and a few other films came first.)

Not only was it a funny, cute-in-an-indie-sort-of-way movie, but the soundtrack is fantastic. I got it a few weeks ago and enjoyed stuff from Regina Spektor, The Smiths, Black Lips and Hall & Oates (yes, seriously), but it gets even better when you hear it in the film.

If you pay no attention during the rest of the film, wake yourself up when you hear the opening notes of "You Make My Dreams" by Hall & Oates. You'll see what I mean.

• In the name of all that is awesome, Beck and MGMT do a Leonard Cohen cover. Wow. I guess Devendra Banhart was there too.

• This has actually been up on the band's site for at least a few days, but Stereogum has a thing on Monsters of Folk's album art. I would have preferred the block-lettered image that was on the band's site before.

• Paramore did a cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" for BBC. It's a pretty straightforward cover (although on acoustic guitars), but female vocals from Hayley Williams fit perfectly on that song.

• Pollstar asks if this was the best concert summer ever. I suppose it's possible, but I only made it to shows here and to Lollapalooza. Seems like festivals are taking over, which end up being amazing experiences — if you can afford to go. Check out the discussion thread.

• Jay-Z announced his fall tour. Guess what. Omaha ain't on it. Are you surprised? I'm not. In related Jay-Z news, they did a track-by-track review over at Spin.

• And today's "completely-unrelated-to-music" feature: The top 10 weirdest moments on "The Muppet Show." Enjoy.